


the lucky to be born

by GottaBe21Rabbits



Series: Stronger Verse [4]
Category: Naruto, 僕のヒーローアカデミア | Boku no Hero Academia | My Hero Academia
Genre: Childhood Friends, Children, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-24
Updated: 2018-10-24
Packaged: 2019-07-05 18:20:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15869169
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GottaBe21Rabbits/pseuds/GottaBe21Rabbits
Summary: When a Hero dies...Where does the soul go?When a Hero dies...What is left behind?Haruno Sakura may not be a Hero, it may be a title that could never belong to her again—but she is determined. This time she'll not let the Hero die.





	the lucky to be born

**Author's Note:**

> Im not dead 
> 
> Im srressed but ima not dead. Hahahaha so i dont own anything and this is the reverse for 'Cause I'm All Alone. Enjoooy!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The world trembles as a soul is reborn

the storm is awake, the danger is real

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  
There’s this distant memory that Sakura would never ever forget.

  
_A blond man, larger than life, frail and sickly with a bright smile for everyone_  
_\---a finger pointing from a window of carnage and finished legacies---_  
\---“You’re Next.”---

  
.

  
At four, Sakura learns to discern her dreams. They are a little sad, a little happy, a little scary but they were always amazing.

  
Whenever her mother or father brings her to the park Sakura would look around, always expecting a blond haired, red-eyed little boy to show up. Or maybe people with different features, boys and girls a muddled mix of human and inhuman. But there were no such boys or girls and Sakura always feels dejected right after. So, she looks at the people instead. She observes them and her mind runs a mile a minute- _\--slouched, silver hair, the feel of lightning, danger this man is---the child on the ground, big-boned, with red cheeks, strength hidden---the man and woman, silent but comfortable with each other, loving and happy---_

  
Her mother and father would always praise her for the articulate and mature way she spoke and it almost makes her _turn really red and cover her face with her arms_. Sometimes, she wants to tell them about her dreams---about being a boy with green hair and a bleak future but still trying so _hard._

  
But. Something tells her to wait, find out everything first--- _what was happening to her, what caused this, are these dreams or memories, too vivid, too real_ \---so she stops, smiles and proceeds to chatter about everything and anything under the sun. She looks back to the people on the playground---stops---and stares. There’s a boy as small as her, blond hair, _smiling too wide,_ blue eyes, _tired sad orbs_ , tan skin, _something lurks in his soul,_ and he was being **_b u l l i e d_**.

  
Sakura is not sure what she does, but at four years old there’s one thing she knows from all her dreams.

  
_This isn’t right._ The words are whispered, faint and mist-like but she listens.

  
One moment she was on the bench and the next she’s in front of bigger children and adults with too hateful eyes. Sakura glares at them, green eyes sparking with energy. Locked, beneath her skin but present all the same. They flinch but hide it with a sneer and turn away so Sakura turns to smile brightly at the slightly scuffed boy.

  
She reaches out a small hand, pale and unblemished (they were scarred and calloused) and says: “My name is Haruno Sakura, do you want to play with us?” She gestures to her parents---shocked yet with a proud beam on their faces.

  
Sakura looks expectantly at the blond boy.

  
For a moment, the world stills its movements and there’s something that tells her that everything will be irrevocably changed. That this wasn’t something meant to happen and she should turn around and flee.

  
Like the boy in her dreams Sakura soldiers on with a smile and waits patiently.

  
The boy looks at Sakura like she’s heroes come to life and then grins brighter than the sun itself.

  
“I’m Uzumaki Naruto, dattebayo!”

  
(The pink-haired girl had wanted to shy away at the adoring look that the blond was sending her way because it was unfamiliar---she was just Sakura, small, too brainy and too lonely---but it was also _unceasingly_  familiar---she remembered the dreams where she’d received such looks, Deku, the useless quirkless nobody that the Large Man had deemed fighting material---and so she would settle and play fearlessly with the pariah of the small park, her parents clapping for them both.)

  
.

  
Over the years they get into trouble and Naruto somehow learns techniques he wasn’t supposed to know.

  
But they were awesome according to him so he teaches to her the one he invents to get to be able to buy cup ramen and milk in the stores. (She gets him to buy other things too, just so that he can stay healthy when Sakura’s mother wasn’t stuffing him with food.) Sakura can’t do it at all on her first try, she looks at the technique and almost says “Quirk! So cool!” but contains herself and instead goes to the library to learn what he’s doing. She doesn’t get far. So she asks her parents discreetly instead. The young girl later learns that it was actually ninjutsu, a type of ninja art (there were ninja?!) and that to do it one has to learn to access chakra. Which Naruto apparently pestered his jiji to teach when he saw a ninja do it once, after returning home late from their times at the park. Sakura almost feels guilty.

  
Then she feels really guilty because she has firsthand experience at how annoyingly persistent Naruto is.

  
But she still tries to learn it, trying to decipher from Naruto’s weird explanation what to do. She learns to access her chakra first, listens to Naruto’s convoluted instruction of: “It’s this really really warm thing in your belly---which jiji says is the source of cool stuff---and then you pull and pull and do _these---“_ He shows a clumsy order of strange hand signs. “---and then you shout ‘Henge!’ and that’s it! Wait! You have to imagine what you have to be at first, ‘ttebayo!”

  
She likens the process of pulling chakra to getting fish from the small river when there is almost no fish at all. She perseveres though because she would really like to see herself as green-haired and a boy, when she feels like it.

  
When she meditates she goes inside her and sees two sources. Which is not what Sakura expected. Was she really that abnormal? One is a small river, blue and clear and warm. The other is a large waterfall generating green and red lightning instead of the foams that she sees in textbooks. They’re connected but separate and they lead to a pink door with a weirdly shaped yellow door sign (it looks familiar, those bunny ears atop the square plaque) with the words “My Room”.

  
Sakura ignores it and goes back to the river, instinctively knowing _not yet_.

  
From her mind’s eye she pulls at the small river with gentleness and familiarity, feeling the warmth rush to her in a controlled wave.

  
_Taiyaki and eggs_ , she thinks dazedly, imagining green and boy and pink, performs the hand signs with sluggishness, shouts “Henge!” and in the safety of what is Naruto’s apartment someone new is born.

  
Naruto cheers beside her and with the help of a mirror Sakura sees who she is. Who he is.

  
Curly green-hair, pink eyes, freckles and a shy smile.

  
(Sakura isn’t able to hold it as long as Naruto, a max of one hour for her which leaves her exhausted, but she practices in the safety of her bathroom again and again in the next two years and wears it like second skin once she’s able to do it for a whole day.

  
When her parents find out---well. Papa has never been more proud to have a son and Mama relishes in having her do manly chores with her.

  
Sakura is just glad that the important people in her life are happy.)

  
.

  
At seven years old, Sakura attends her first day in the Ninja Academy because she doesn’t want to leave Naruto alone and she refuses to be weak if she ever has to be on an even standing with him. Besides, chakra is an easy access already.

  
There are things that are made clear to her on that day.

 

  1. Nobody likes Naruto. And, in result, nobody likes her.
  2. Gender separation is stupid because she’s a boy half of the time.
  3. Everyone thinks her “chakra” reserves are small even though she’s pretty sure she felt something more.
  4. **_She would need to learn how to heal. And fight. Because they get into so much trouble._**
  5. People are not created equal.



  
.

  
Sakura wipes away the new onset of tears. This is ridiculous.

  
The young girl perseveres under her best friend’s worried eyes, walking with false bravado and a determined gaze. She leaves behind her parents at the gate and walks hand in hand with her blond friend.

  
_Shannaro! We can do this!_ The older male voice in her head says with burning fire.

  
Then she hears the whispers (quirkless, useless, monster, demon---they’re all blending together) and tries very hard not to flinch. She squeezes Naruto’s hand and he squeezes back. The ground is even and the pink-haired girl is careful not to trip. She needs to be strong. Sakura takes hold of the steel will of the the boy in her dreams and walks forward not once looking at the glares of the people directed at the duo.

  
A shroud of confidence engulfs her with every step she takes. Sakura breathes, wills away her tears, and looks ahead.

  
“We can do this, dattebayo.” Naruto assures her. Sakura nods and they join the group of children gathered in front of their future teachers and the Hokage. They stay at the back, her hand holding Naruto from suddenly tackling the genial old man as she learned he was wont to do. And from the look of the ninja around the Hokage Sakura is sure they won’t be as forgiving as the ones with the animal masks. She listens with an attentive ear as she knows Naruto won’t and takes apart the hidden meanings inside her head.

  
_“Konoha citizens learn as they grow that the village will be their most important, it will nurture them as much as they will learn to cherish it. It will be their home and this Academy is lucky to have the chance to educate young minds be they go to the Civilian or Ninja course. I, the Hokage, am glad to know that new buds will be willing to fight and care for the village that our founders built. It will be a joy to see this faces in the next few years. The Will of Fire is in every one of you, ready to be ignited and stoked, and I hope the teachers here will help you realize it. We are the Leaf and we belong to one Big Tree. No one is ever alone, no one will ever be alone. May the Village prosper!”_

  
_“May the Village prosper!”_ They repeat in a distorted unison. Everyone is inspired but Sakura is still mulling over the words. She doesn’t know she’s muttering quietly until Naruto nudges her and she looks at him, sheepishly realizing her strange habit has once again struck. She blushes faintly and says sorry. The green-eyed student looks at the Hokage and wonders if the speech was repeated again and again like a mantra to be believed or if they are formed mainly for the subtle nuances and impression they will leave on young minds, the suggestions hidden behind flowery words. Sakura doesn’t care, even though she should, she knows but she is mainly here for Naruto and her promise to him. She looks at the Academy and another image superimposes over it, a building with hundreds of glass walls, large and with numerous floors, teenagers with various features instead of children from different clans loitering about and teachers dressed in weird outfits smiling at each other and their students, free of judgment.

  
The image disappears when she blinks and she’s back at the Academy, small and pink-haired, holding hands with a blue-eyed blond boy. It takes a moment for her to acclimatize again and remind herself that it was a dream _that was too vivid and real_ but still a dream.

  
“Let’s go, Naruto-kun!”

  
“Yatta! We’re gonna be ninja Sakura-chan!”

  
She giggles. “Yup!”

  
They make their way inside, following the teachers with green vests and tour each level. There are other students, older and learning and Sakura wants to listen in, absorb the knowledge of this world like she never has before. She wants to learn everything that she can because she’s coming to a conclusion she isn’t sure what to do with. It wasn’t like this in Deku’s world afterall. But she decides _later_ and quiets the green-haired boy in her. So the young student looks around her, noting the windows and the ledges, the hiding spots and the warm feeling that the very walls emanate.

  
The group walks and walks until Sakura is almost certain that these ninja were fooling them when they reach a room. A man, tall and brown-haired with a scar on his face (fluid, kind, misplaced, the scent of lingering salt) clears his throat. He calls out names that line up behind him and Sakura clutches on Naruto’s hand, very scared that they might be separated. Naruto himself gets a mulish look on his mien but he doesn’t try to get anyone’s attention and stays with Sakura at the back.

  
“Akimichi Choji---

  
“Aburame Shino—

  
“Inuzuka Kiba---

  
“Nara Shikamaru---

  
“Uzumaki Naruto---

  
“And Hyuuga Hinata for Class 1-A!”

  
The green-eyed girl places her palm on Naruto’s mouth before a shout can even form. She waits for a few minutes, attempting to relax herself when she hears her name called in the roster of Class 1-B, watching the another young man _(dark, angry and blood in his mind_ ) shuffling his papers and announcing himself as their homeroom teacher. Sakura wonders if this is how Deku felt at the Entrance Exams of his Hero School, the feeling of befuddlement, excitement and sheer regret at life.

  
Eventually she releases Naruto and whispers to him before he can go to his classroom:

  
“I’ll meet you at lunch, Naruto-kun. Shinobi together---

  
“Best friends forever, dattebayo.” Naruto finishes solemnly and waves goodbye when she lets go of his hand.

  
She steps into the classroom with a wary eye and unsure feet, right after a bubbly girl with platinum blond hair. They are ordered to seat anywhere they want but to Sakura it feels like a structure is being built in this tiny room. A pecking order, Deku says in the confines of her mind.

  
Which is ridiculous. They were seven year olds…an image comes up in Sakura’s eye, children no older than four flocking to a red-eyed blond, the development of powers building something of a ladder one should climb, where the select few are hailed as Heroes. The young student shakes it away. There’s no room for strange day-dreams right now.

  
There’s only one thing to do now. Be the best Shinobi she could be.

  
**_SHANNARO._**

  
“Haruno-san! If you could please stop muttering at the back and pay attention!” The teacher says in a mild voice. Sakura could hear the scorn though and she curbs in the desire to punch his face in--- _power-hungry, dark, and rage all in one. Deceit._

  
Sakura flushes in shame and nods.

  
“Ne! Don’t worry about him! He’s just mad because he’s chuunin still. My daddy said that he had too many issues to be promoted to jounin.” A pretty platinum-haired girl whispers to Sakura causing a dark-haired boy (Yamanaka Ino and Uchiha Sasuke, respectively, she heard) to snicker behind his hand.

  
“Thank you, Yamanaka-san…” Sakura replies softly, her smile wide like the one she sees Naruto and the Large Man offer to reassure others.

  
“It’s Ino---and no problem! We’re Konoha leaflets, we gotta stick together!”

  
Maybe she and Naruto wouldn’t be so alone after this.

  
(It’s a nice thought anyway.)

  
  
The morning goes thus. They introduce themselves to each other, their sensei going first and then the students going from the teacher’s left at the front row until it reaches all the way to the back. Sakura is in the middle, and everyone looks at her funny.

  
_No. The civilian kids look at me funny_.

  
Sakura wants to hide but she can’t. She has to introduce herself to these people, her future comrades. There’s no harm anyway, in their stares. (Although it looks a lot like the ones she dreams of, the ones that haunt Naruto’s steps.) She takes a shaky breath and grabs hold of the steel will that allowed her to walk in this school. Brave. She has to be brave.

  
“My name is Haruno Sakura. It’s nice to meet you. I like my family and I dislike…some things. My dream is to be a ninja with my friend and make our family proud. My hobbies are reading and training.” The girl sits down before whispers could break out, her face a cherry red.

  
Up front the teacher maintains a genial smile but his eyes are narrowed. Dark. Judging just like the little faces that had stared at her. Sakura swallows. Teachers had never been this hostile in Deku’s world. Then again, killing wasn’t a taught subject to children either.

  
She really can’t wait for recess.

 

Recess turns out to be trouble.

 

When introductory class ends the students are immediately separated by gender. This confuses the pink-haired child. A female teacher, her eyes covered by a pair of glasses, appear beside Mizuki-sensei in a swish of displaced air. It’s like those animal-masked people at the Hokage office. It sometimes reminds of her of the blue-haired boy with the strange fire in his legs.

  
“Hello, everyone.” She says. “I am Arata Suzuki-sensei and I will the Kunoichi Arts teacher. Girls, call me Suzuki-sensei.” She looks at the girls side of the line, gazes at them as if they were specimens that she found lacking. It makes Sakura shrink back just a little bit more. “Okay, come on, girls. Time for your first lesson.”

  
She turns around and strides away, the other girls getting up from their seats and following like ducklings. Sakura scrambles to catch up and when they’re outside she realizes that the girls from the other class was with them too. Sakura sticks to Yamanaka-san though. She is nervous that much is true but Sakura takes comfort in the fact that Naruto will be walking with her later. She could do this (despite the confusion) for her friend.

  
Nonetheless, Sakura is dutiful, she knows the value of education and knows that gender is sometimes a very clear cut thing to others. Restricting. She’d just have to adjust to it and surely they won’t deny girls the Shinobi Practices, it would be detrimental to their future repertoire, right?

  
_I miss my friends…_ the wispy voice of Deku says. It was steadily getting stronger, and stronger everyday. The memories getting harder to ignore.

  
Sakura swallows down the wistful sensation creeping in her mind and walks after her classmates with careful steps. She is beside the Hyuuga girl in no time and attempts to beat down her nervousness to start a conversation. Sakura could do this. Her parents Had always said she could make friends in unlikely places.

  
She could make more friends.

  
She and Naruto both.

**Author's Note:**

> Thoughts? Comments?
> 
>  
> 
> It's all welcome!


End file.
